Bad Case of the Stripes

Last day of "I Love to Read" Month. This morning, we were about 11,000 minutes short of our goal (33,650 or so minutes). I amped up the the 7-8th graders by telling them we wouldn't have the cocoa party if we didn't make our goal. One of the 8th graders, the smarty pants, said, "I saw the cocoa and cookies on the table in the office... What are you gonna do with them if we don't make it? Eat them yourself?" I stared him right in the eyes and said, "Yep. Right in front of you." We all laughed. He said, "But that's so mean!" I said, "Then you better write down how much you read this month and turn it in to Mrs. E!"

We had a lot of sheets turned in before lunch. Enough that we actually made our goal! So, at 2:00, the kids read in the gym for a little while as they drank their cocoa and ate their cookies. Then, they trekked to Mr. E's room so he could read a book, A Bad Case of the Stripes. We teachers thought it would be funny if Mr. E read the book with his face painted to look like the main character's, all covered in stripes. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to get his face done. However, the rest of us put face paint on and popped into the room right as he got to the part where the main character's face changes colors. Mine was red/white/blue, Mr. D had white with purple polkadots, Mrs. L had leafy greens all over, and Mrs. E dressed up as the old lady who helps the girl get back to normal.

It was great! Mr. D was already in the room to take pictures, so I was the first teacher to make a surprise visit. I knocked on the door, Mrs. E 'screamed', and I announced, "Mr. E, I don't feel so good. I think I should go home." All the kids stared at me wide-eyed. It clicked with a couple kids, "Ohhh, Mr. D, that's why your face is like that!" A few pages later, Mrs. L did the same thing.

I had some trouble finding this face paint this morning. I knew I had a bunch left from the Fall Carnival in October. For the longest time it was under Joe's tank, but I thought I had moved it into the closet. Before school, I scoured the closet and found nothing. Thinking I had maybe sent it home with a kid, I questioned them all when they got to school. Nope. So the girls searched the closet too. Nothing.  During Reading Buddies I made one more attempt to find it. Ha! It was right where I thought it was, but shoved further against the wall and tucked back. It came off pretty well. The red kind of stained my skin a bit, but I think another wash at home will do the trick. The bathroom soap at school is not super great and it's hard to wash your face in the low sink!

I forgot all about my potentially strange-looking face when our preschool teacher called me after school and said a school in New Ulm had received a huge donation of good quality nonfiction books. Did I want to come look through them with her? Uh, yes please! So we spent a full hour digging through boxes selecting ones to add to our class libraries. I ended up with four cardboard boxes (one box is for the Fulda library). There were boxes and boxes of duplicate books; I didn't feel bad about taking so many. We barely made a dent!

Bell Update

Last night the 5-8th graders played bells for Ash Wednesday service. It was... not a complete train wreck. It's not as bad as that sounds. The first song sounded great at practice that morning, but we got off on the wrong foot and a bunch of them got lost. I actually considered starting the song over, but we carried on and they eventually found their places again. Until one pair couldn't get the page turned, but they caught up again too. The congregation couldn't tell we were messing up... I know because they told me. My Bible study ladies said they only knew it wasn't going how it was supposed to go by the looks on their faces. Their faces were priceless!

The second song went better. It included the 5th graders on the tone chimes. They did pretty well overall. We're going to play that song ("Ah, Holy Jesus") for Fine Arts Fair in two weeks, but swap out the 5th graders with the 6-8th graders who didn't play in that song this time.

School today... Eh. I feel like I keep saying the same thing over and over. My normally crazy kid did okay today, except all the other boys went crazy/yelled at each other at recess/had meltdowns/couldn't keep their hands to themselves... I'll stop there. Thank the Lord tomorrow is Friday!

Better-ish

A better day than yesterday, but still not good. When one student acts out, it really drags down the whole class. The most frustrating part of the day for me was at the end of the day, after PE, after Mr. E had called everyone in. They were supposed to be packing up to go home. When I came in the gym from the hallway, I found my normal four boys messing around. Instead of chewing them out, I said something hinting that if they were in the gym and didn't go in right now they'd be getting consequences. They dashed off.

One boy in particular was pouting and being crabby-pantsed. He thought that meant they got sentences. He was so irate I wanted to clear the air with him before he went home. I explained (very calmly) that when I came in the gym and saw them still in there, I thought they were messing around when they were supposed to be packing up and doing their end of the day jobs.

He countered with, "I was picking up PE stuff for Mr. E!"
I said, "Oh, it looked like you were messing around with a ball or something."
"No, we were trying to touch the net!"
"Ohh, well, it didn't look like you were picking stuff up for Mr. E, which is why I thought you were messing around. Were you still picking things up at that time? It looked like everything was put away." (It had been).
(long pause) "I don't remember."
"I see, well, next time, you should explain that you are doing a job for him. Then I will apologize for scolding you for being in the gym."
The kid was still upset and not sure what else to say, but at least he didn't have any more backtalk.

After school I asked Mr. E about that. He said when he left the gym, this student had already put all the stuff away and was heading back to the classroom end of the gym. So. He was not in the gym with a purpose, like I suspected. Grr... I wish I had a better way to get these kids in from recess. They will ignore me and shoot around for a few more minutes after it's time to go in. Nothing except threatening sentences will get them to move!

Rough and Rowdy

Boy, today was an exhausting day... I think I had a lot of tired kids from yesterday's big day at the capitol. I know my body was still feeling tired when I got up this morning. One student's parents are on vacation out of the state for the week and I can tell he's feeling it. He spent a bunch of time with Mr. E because he was too disruptive and wouldn't listen.

We had bell practice at church this morning to prepare for tomorrow night's Ash Wednesday service. Our songs are still a little rough, but we'll practice tomorrow after chapel and hopefully things will be all right. There is one part where a kid plays on the off-beat that he just can't get. But, we're glorifying God, no matter how many mistakes we make!

Capitol

Thankfully my illness lasted only one day. I'm feeling much better, though my tummy is still a little rumbly from time to time. My kids did great in Mr. E's room. He said they didn't make a peep all day.

Today, the 5-8th graders went to the state capitol. A parent who used to work as a legislative assistant planned everything, so I got to take it easy-ish today. We took a bus up, met with our local representatives and senator, sat in on a committee hearing, and talked to a lobbyist. I think I finally understand what they do now... they're hired by companies or groups of people to 'talk government' with elected officials in an attempt to get them to vote a certain way or make certain legislature. We also took a tour of the capitol and met with the Lieutenant Governor of our state (basically Minnesota's vice president). That was pretty cool. Peggy is the first Native American to be elected lieutenant governor and the second Native American to be elected to state office in the US.

The last thing we did was to watch the House in session. We sat up in the galley (open to the public). But, our four 8th graders were able to sit on the House floor (you need special passes to do that), and Rep. Brand made a special announcement about our school to the whole room. The rest of the House recognized us with a standing ovation! It was pretty neat. Session was also very short. The bills on the docket got sent back to committee/their authors so it lasted about 15-20min total, if that.

We got a lot of compliments on our students today. The best one was from Senator Frentz who told our Courtland Fire Chief (up at the capitol today to talk about Hwy 14 expansion from a safety perspective) that our kids were the best dressed group of students he's ever seen. Sweet!

My favorite part of the day was probably watching our students pretend to be in court. The room we used as our base had a big U-shaped table with microphones for each seat. They decided to sit there and call people up to the 'witness' stand in the center of the U. The 'crimes' they tried their classmates for were quite interesting ranging from stealing Swiss Rolls to breaking into a house to play "Fortnite" to stabbing a person. It was cool to see them work out the issues and take what they knew about the justice system and apply it in fun. They even called me to the witness stand once!

Sick

Well, I had the best of intentions of going to bed on time last night. I did go to bed early, but I didn't fall asleep until way too late. I got one of those stomach bugs that's going around and stayed home from school today. :( Last night was the worst, and I was able to fall asleep, but since I probably had a fever (my thermometer quit working so I couldn't tell for sure), I decided to rest up at home.

Our sub list is quite short to begin with, and one of our go-tos is already subbing for Mrs. L this week. Our other go-to is busy today because her son is getting married tonight! So. Mr. E ended up absorbing my class for the day. I made them a checklist and emailed it to Mr. E. Hopefully the day went okay!

Me Time

Boy today was a tough one. One kid just didn't care about school today and nothing I could do or say could get him to stop talking. He kept getting mad whenever I tried to redirect him, either ignoring me or yelling and stalking out of the room. We talked a few times to try to get to the bottom of it, but he didn't have an answer for what set him off. His parents are going on a (well-deserved) week long vacation next week, and I know he's not looking forward to that, but he said that wasn't the reason. His homework fixes weren't the reason either. So he ended up working in Mr. E's room for the rest of the morning.

I am really nervous about these parents being gone. I'm glad they're going and I hope they are able to relax and de-stress. But I have no idea how their kid is going to be in school. And without someone at home to talk through his behavior with him, I have a feeling next week is going to be a rough one. Or he could surprise me and be really good all week! So, start praying now!

Two things I haven't been doing so good on this week and need to work on: going to bed on time and leaving school on time. Today was kind of hard to leave by five; I had a meeting at Nicollet right after school so I came back to Immanuel afterwards to do my normal work. Hopefully I can get to bed on time though!